Without fear
Arvid Lindblad probably represented the main positive surprise of the Australian weekend. The Englishman from VCARB, in his absolute debut in the Circus, confirmed his excellent qualifying performance in the race and crossed the finish line in eighth position, also becoming the protagonist of several spectacular battles with various drivers. One of these saw him pitted against four-time world champion Max Verstappen, in front of whom the Red Bull junior team driver did not back down at all, quite the opposite.
Max furious over the radio
The two, after dueling for a few laps on track, returned to the pits together to take advantage of the Virtual Safety Car’s entry. Here Verstappen literally became infuriated with the ‘rookie’ of the Faenza-based team, ‘branding’ him with vitriolic words. The Dutchman in fact perceived that Lindblad wanted to brake-test him at the entrance to the pit lane, visibly slowing down in front of him. For a moment Verstappen even thought about trying to overtake before reaching the speed limiter zone, but Lindblad firmly closed the door on him again.
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“Is that a brake-test?!”, Verstappen asked incredulously over the radio, before adding: “That a**hole just brake-tested me all the way through the pit lane!”. Immediately after the stop, the #3 managed to free himself from the cumbersome presence of the Racing Bulls in front of him, pulling off a nice overtake at turn 9. Certainly Lindblad found a way to get noticed in his first career Grand Prix, but after all, in Formula 1, to earn the respect of certain veterans, you often have to be capable of not being intimidated by them. The #41 certainly wasn’t.
